Mind if I join? I know this is an older thread but I've noticed that many of you are writing again. I've reached the 1 year mark of TTC without success and while we try to find out what's wrong, I've decided to try to lose some weight. I'm not overweight by any means, but I've had to battle with it for a long time. I have a history of eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, exercise bulimia) so it's hard for me to lose and gain weight in a healthy manner. I've been as low as 118 lbs. and my BMI was 17.4 (Healthy is like 18.5-25). Right now I weigh around 160 lbs. When you have a history of eating disorders it's really hard to lose weight without taking it to the extreme. Luckily I've been in recovery for about 2 years, but every time I try to get back on an exercise regimen my old habits try to creep their way back in. It starts off well enough, just eating right and light working out, but eventually I'm weighing myself 4 times a day and working out for longer amounts of time and eating less. Sorry for my rambling, lol. I just haven't had a chance to talk to anyone TTC about weight loss since my family isn't very supportive of DH and I trying

You sound exactly like me! Although I never battled bulimia I have had bouts of anorexia and exercise bulimia. My most recent lapse was in 2006 with exercise bulimia. I'd keep totals of every calorie I ate down to a stick of gum then I'd get home, hop on my bike for hours compelled to burn atleast 1.5x what I ate or more. I went from a size 15-205 lbs to a size 6-145 lbs in about 3 months.

In October 2006 I was involved in a serious car accident leaving me with limited mobility. It took me months to recover and in the process I gained back 30 lbs. Since then I gained an additional 10. I'm trying desperately to get back to my comfort zone of 150 without going overboard but I still catch myself weighing in 1-3 times a day. Currently I'm 173 (AF has me a bit bloated), I'm trying to do this the healthy way.

Just curious but do you have a plan of attack for healthy weight loss? I always like to compare notes with peers.

So glad to hear from you Crunchy! I don't know how long it took me to get down to 118 lbs., I think it was about 4 months (I started at 150), and that took me from a size 11 to a size 3-5. I'm 5'9" so I was like freakishly skinny. I was actually on America's Next Top Model in 2008 and that was when I was at my skinniest. All of my friends and family who saw the show became really concerned and instead of saying "Oh you looked great!" I got "You look ill". As soon as I finished taping that's when I started to get better. I'd actually been through a recovery program before I went on the show, but nothing really sunk in until after the show was finished.

I still keep in contact with one of the other women who was in it with me, and I guess that's part of my "plan of attack." is to stay in touch with her. She helps me realize when ED is starting to creep back in. Really, my plan doesn't consist of much, just the basic exercise 1x a day (for 30 min. max) and eat 3 reasonable meals. The only thing that's different about what I'm doing is that I've made a rule/promise to myself: If I ever start thinking about foods as "good" or "bad" then I have to force myself to eat at least 3 bites of that food I'm scared of to prove that it won't kill me. I went about 6 months eating the exact same thing every day. Same breakfast, same lunch, same dinner. I was working out about 5 hours a day and consuming around 900 calories. However, I used to binge eat frequently and when I would do that I would consume around 7,000 calories in a half hour to an hour.

Sorry that was a long post. I've been in recovery for a while and I kinda forgot about how emotional an eating disorder can be. Looking back on it and all of the food rituals and rules I had for myself I couldn't imagine doing it all over again. I caused so much damage to my body. Hemorrhoids from laxative abuse (I had my first colonoscopy at age 17 due to bloody stool), lost AF for about a year because my body weight was so low...I never even really got her again until I took birth control to get it started, and yea. I really need to stop typing, lol. I'm boring all of you to death.

What is your plan of action crunchy? And how long have you been in recovery?